review Archives - Vincent van der Toorn

Impressions Shure SE425 with a bluetooth cable.

Because of an earlier post by a redditor, my attention was brought upon the fact you can order wireless ‘cables’ for IEM with removable cables.

Two of my close friends bought Airpods and keep on raving about wireless headphones and all the practical benefits: no more cable getting yanked out of your ears at doors, no longer being tethered to your device so more freedom to do whatever you like. That’s all fun and games, but when I’m at home I will listen to my dedicated headphone setup with DAC and amp. Therefore the only interesting use case with wireless headphones for me would be on the go or while working out. During commuting wireless audio can have tangible benefits, but I need the passive isolation of an IEM, which Airpods do not offer. Without the passive noise isolation humans have a tendency to turn up the volume. The danger of turning up the volume to such high levels is you could damage your hearing permanently!

Conclusion: Let us check out a cheap wireless IEM: Cheap in the sense of already owning the IEM and merely replacing the cable for a bluetooth adapter.

In my research I noticed that wireless audio is seen as a bad idea generally by audio enthusiasts, which led me have doubts about this experiment. I needed more information:

Why is bluetooth considered as a bad idea for audio?

According to this article from lifehacker:

To be able to transmit the digital signal, it has to be compressed. Rule of thumb: Digital compression is detrimental for your audio quality.
Bluetooth uses the 2.4 GHz bandwith, which has to compete with other wireless transmitters using the same frequency such as Wi-Fi, wireless mice/keyboards and microwaves among others. These interferences can cause signal drops, which means your music will cut out for a short while.

As a wireless-sceptic I figured there would be losses to audio quality that are simply not worth it. On the other hand, there are use cases where I would prefer to be able to listen to music over not having any music at all. My conclusion, it's not all bad news and I was curious. I felt it would be a worthwhile experiment to look into. After a quick google on ‘shure bluetooth’ I found this cable, and I ordered it immediately. The cable was delivered on the 20th of january, and here are my impressions after using the Shures wirelessly for the last two weeks:

First, let me express my expectations. I expected the sound quality to suffer to the point that it would be audible, in the same sense that you can hear a difference between a 128 kbit/s mp3 compared to a 320 kbit/s mp3.

Clarity - instrument separation and imaging is just as fantastic as wired. You can definately hear fingers moving on the fretboard on acoustic songs. I expect I am a little influenced here, I expected it to be worse.

Soundstage - As intimate as you would expect with an in ear monitor, it was the same.

Lows - Not overly bassy for an IEM, but it is present and extends well. I think the bluetooth transmission losses can be heard best in the bassier songs, especially at higher volumes. The SE425 is not regarded as one of the most bassy IEM, so I thought this was quite a shame.

Mids - The SE425 is known for its' sliky smooth mids, fantastically facilitating vocals, Which I value as one of the strongest points of this IEM. I did experience some significant loss in quality from the bluetooth transmission here, but it really depends on the song.

Highs - The SE425 is not the best when it comes to treble. it lacks in emphasis and does not extend as high in the frequency range as I would like. The bluetooth transmission makes certain songs a bit less involving and distorts the sound to be a bit tinny, But again this really depends on the song.

What are the practical benefits of bluetooth headphones?

Wireless transmission makes using the Shures easier, less of a chore to get everything right to listen to music. All you have to do is: turn the bluetooth reciever on and press play on your phone and you are good to go. During commuting you have the benefit of just putting the phone in your pocket and not being thethered to your device. When I used them with the wire, I occasionally had to put my phone in another pocket to prevent the cable from being damaged. Not a huge issue, but irritating nontheless.

My biggest concerns with this bluetooth headset setup:

At times when I was cycling there was a short loss of signal during transmission, which ruins the immersion into the music. The music cuts out for a second and then resumes playing, sometimes multiple times repeatedly.
'Did I charge my headphones?' is a frustrating usability concern.I have encoutered two times already I wanted to use the headphones, but I could not since it ran out of charge. Other wireless headphones like the Airpods have this covered with charging cases. One solution could be to keep a powerbank in your bag and a short micro usb cable to charge them when you’re out and about, but seriously who wants that? (hint: not me) I ended up charging the headphones at work when I was working without music, but this is something you have to get up for and arrange which takes a little bit of effort.
Switching from device to device is cumbersome although after you have finished the initial pairing it's quite easy to connect it to your phone.
Audible loss of sound quality because of the bluetooth transmission.

Is bluetooth worth it?

Honestly, not really. At least not in this configuration. The benefits of a less cumbersome headset in use is not more profitable for me compared to the sacrifices that are necessary to create the wireless connection. There are only three cases where bluetooth is good enough for me to use the wireless setup:

Simply put, when portability is the main objective.
In noisy environments/environments where you would not be able to listen carefully anyway. In my case it would be my noisy office or on the go in the train.
When you are streaming lossy audio anyway.*

When I am cooking dinner and watching a youtube video or listening to a podcast at the same time. When I cook, I can run around the kitchen a bit. Being able to use my tablet untethered is a clear benefit here. In all other cases I prefer the improved sound quality and lack of signal drops that you get with a cable.

I still want to buy a pair of Airpods though, sigh.

*= I have one second thought about this one. According to this link you should never convert lossy files to anything else. So how about playback? In transmission, bluetooth needs to compress the audio signal. If the file has been compressed already from a lossless source to a lossy file, and then during transmission again, would that not have a even worse effect on the audio quality? Right now, I don't know.

Published by Vincent in headphones, review

A keyboard is one of the interactions with a PC downplayed by most PC users, while at the same time it is one of the most used parts of a PC. I write a lot on a keyboard during the day at work, and certainly used to do a lot of it at univeristy. I believe this interaction should be a pleasant one, or at the least shouldn't distract from the work I am doing.

On 15 Jun 2014 I discovered mechanical keyboards, and bought my first: TEX Beetle. While that keyboard was a good start, I wish I had done a bit more research. The layout was really bad, with a 1u wide right shift. I could not get used to it, since I type blind. I chose to look into other options with the same small footprint. In the meantime I bought a Apple Extended II keyboard and USB modded it, but that's food for another blogpost. What happened next is what happens more often than I would like to admit: I went ham and bought the most premium keyboard I could find: The PFU HHKB Professional 2.

First impressions

"The keyboard feels, sounds and looks premium. It is really good, even though I had relatively high expectations. My colleague asked me why I would pay 55 euros for a keyboard. He did not realize that that's just the import taxes from Japan..." - My first quote about this board

Layout

The Fn-layer does take some getting used to, same with the location of the delete button, but I am so happy with the right shift! My Tex Beetle I had been using before had this super little right shift, which was difficult to use without looking for me.

still this keyboard does have a couple interesting layout quirks which you have to get used to as well: where you would expect the caps lock to be contol is found, and backspace is right above enter.

Pros

Ergonomic well thought out layout
Small and portable form factor
Topre switches
High quality PBT keycaps
The layout is perfect for OSX, as well as for UNIX environments
Fairly easy to mod

Cons

If you get used to this layout you don't want anything else
Typing on other boards feels inferior
Price

First mod, HASU bluetooth controller

After posting a picture of the HHKB Pro2 on Reddit, user /u/Kalam1ty recommended to check out the alternate (bluetooth) controller for the HHKB made by Hasu. Hasu is a forum member on the Geekhack keyboard enthusiasts forum. His creation offers full programabilty of the keyboard with multiple key layers, as well as bluetooth connectivity. Keep in mind you will need a lithium ion battery as well as this board to enable the bluetooth connectivity, since the board needs power.

For my studies I have played with PCB, Arduino and such, so this seemed as a really intriguing project.

Installation was fairly easy, and it works straightforward as well. For bluetooth there is an on/off switch, so if you turn it off and it is connected to your PC via USB it will automaticly use the USB connection.

Programmable layers

One of the best features of the alternative controller by Hasu is the ability to program layers into the keyboard. This works by flashing custom firmware onto the controller, which works with the TMK keyboard firmware. The biggest benefit? Any key can be anything you like, so you can customize it to the work you are doing for a certain task.

Why bluetooth/wireless?

Have you ever been frustrated with typing on a tablet or smartphone while on the go? I mean that time you really needed to send a long email on the go? A bluetooth enabled keyboard is a really good fit. I enjoy the connectivity to my iPad for when I'm on the go but need to do some typing, although I use this mod mostly at work. It is a real joy when you can grab your laptop/tablet and keyboard out of your bag and turn the board on and start typing right away, without having to dive into your bag to look where you left that usb cable again. The board can be used wireless for approximately 12 hours, since the board itself is quite power hungry. When it is out of energy, I can recharge it with and use it with a normal usb cable at the same time.

Second mod, silencing mod

Some people might tell you that a mechanical keyboard is a dream to type on. I agree, but there is one slight drawback: noise. Especially when you work in an open office as I do or in group projects at university as I did, noise can be a nuisance for others.

I discovered the HHKB has a silent variant called the Type-s which uses a slightly modified version of the topre switch, which is more silent relatively.

So how does it work?

Topre switches uses a different working principle compared to Cherry MX switches. For MX switches you can use O-rings to silence the stem of the keycap hitting the board when bottoming out on the keystroke. Topre switches on the other hand make noise when the keycap returns to the normal state after pressing, right at the end of the upstroke. The stem of the topre mechanism needs to be dampened in that motion, which can achieved by applying dental bands or anything else rubber and round.

First you need to remove all keycaps and open up the three screws at the backside of the board. Then you need to remove all screws of the backside of the PCB. Then you need to apply the rubber band to the stem of the topre switch and mount it back to the board.

After one year I reversed the mod, and here's why:

The result is a much quieter upstroke of the keys by damping the loudest element of the board. This is not without consequences though, you lose a bit of key travel. I performed this mod on the 4th Feb 2016, but since January 2017 I removed the mod by getting rid of the rubber bands. The tradeoff of a more silent board is not worth it if you lose that much key travel.

Is this board worth it?

In my opinion yes it is. Sure it is expensive, but it feels premium to type on and is a pleasure to type on for longer durations. With the bluetooth addon I can use it with my iPad Pro as well as my MacBook, which makes it very flexible.

Published by Vincent in mechanical keyboards, review

Is this the Airpod killer?